A Cute Little Guy!

[V S Sankar]

This is from my archives......this little Nilgiri Tahr was curious with our presence and the camera.Tahrs are normally very comfortable with the presence of humans.

Canon 400D,55-250 IS,f11,1/320,ISO 400 at 179mm

Regards

V S Sankar

[Shyamala Kumar]

Nice image of a curious kid in the protection of his mothers shadow .The rocks in the background is the same colour as that of the herbivores and provides good camouflage protection .Wonder which predator preys on these gentle animals ?.Thanks for sharing .

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Cute fellow. Leopards are the natural predators of these Nilgiri Tahrs. The Tahrs stay up in steep slopes which are difficult to access. However, they move from one cliff to another and need to pass through flat ground. It is during these movements that leopards hunt. The leopards often climb up and try to attack from a higher vantage point. ERC Davidar in his book mentions of an incident where he found a black panther stalking a Nilgiri Tahr. These days people are hunting tahrs as the high cost of mutton means they get huge amount of money for one tahr kill.

[Murugan Anantharaman]

The little fellow seems amused and maybe wondering what's happening. It will take sometime for him to get used to humans. Unfortunately he will get used to humans. Thanks for sharing.

[V S Sankar]

Thanks for the comments Sabhyaji,Shaymalaji and Muruganji.....wild dogs are also known to hunt Nilgiri Tahrs....dogs make a circle and pounce on the hapless Tahr and eat it!

Regards

V S Sankar